Tackling child poverty delivery plan: fourth year progress report 2021-2022 - focus report on households with mothers aged 25 or under

Introduction

Families with a mother aged under 25 are a priority group for tackling child poverty in Scotland, as evidence suggests that they are more likely to be in poverty.^[1]

This report presents the latest data on the child poverty targets and includes further evidence on the drivers of child poverty amongst families with a mother aged under 25. To provide a richer understanding of the experiences of these families and to begin to fill some key data gaps, existing evidence identified was complemented with qualitative interviews with mothers in this priority group. The interview data allowed us to fill in some of the gaps in the evidence (with particularly rich findings around daily support, childcare, housing and financial circumstances) as well as supporting findings in the existing evidence base (around employment and general cost of living). Findings around income from social security were more limited.

Details on the methods used can be found in Annex A.

Throughout this report, when we refer to low-income families, we mean families who fall into the bottom three deciles of annual household income.